Sunday, August 11, 2013

I have been extremely busy. I have been accepted to Carleton University for September to do an MBA! So along with being generally more employable, I will be able to use the knowledge from my MBA in my art practice; to network and market myself and have business skills necessary to succeed.

In the meantime art has been in my thoughts lately. I went to Toronto for a weekend and visited the Art Gallery of Ontario. I hadn't realized that the biggest Henry Moore collection in the world is there.

'The Archer' by Henry Moore

City Hall, Toronto

I went to see Henry Moore's studio's in England in 2008 and was completely taken by his work. Despite having a keychain from there that I look at every day, I hadn't thought about his work in years. Walking through his works in the Art Gallery of Ontario, and even moreso discovering his work about the city, I once again was astonished by his use of form and space that had originally grabbed my attention years ago.

When I returned to Ottawa I listened to this Henry Moore documentary at work.

If you can possibly find an hour of your life to listen to some of the most sincere explanations an artist can give to their own work, watch this video.

He led me to many thoughts about art. Some time ago I had given up drawing with the idea that a drawing is not generally an exhibitable piece of work and therefore has no value and is a waste of time. In this documentary Henry Moore describes drawing:

"I think drawing, even for people who cannot draw, even for people not trying to produce a good drawing, it makes you look more intensely at whatever you are trying to draw... Just looking alone has no grit in it. Has no sort of mental struggle or difficulty. That only happens while you are drawing."

After this I went out and bought a sketchbook and paint markers. I have been drawing feverishly, looking at things more closely. And that is beginning to evolve to notes and ideas and sketches of potential paintings and objects that repeat themselves in my life.

I have since been listening to more artist documentaries at work. In all of them I am finding inspiration, albeit some more than others. But at home I find time to sketch or at least lay down some words most nights. And with that the ideas in my head are constantly rolling. I am thinking about presence and absence and negative space and the apollonian and dionysian and form and things that I once used to roll over and over in my head but have since dissipated from my busy life.

You never know what little thing will spark that love of art in you all over again. I've lost it and found it again so many times. I hope I never lose that spark, and there will always be Henry Moore's in my life to bring it back.